This is a
wartime Gander Christmas card is believed to be from 1943, with a
possiblity it was a year later. It was probably an official card rather
than something that could be bought at the base PX shopping facility
because the name was printed inside the card is in the same characters
as the main text. Given the quality and that the senders name was
printed at the same time as the card, it could quite possibly have been
reserved for senoir officers. (I used Photoshop to erase the name
on this one.)

i

The name "Gander" can be clearly seen on
the inside-

I noticed that the Lancaster on the cover of the
Christmas card had the identification number “VN-N”. In the Royal
Air Force and Commonwealth countries, the first two letters identified
the Squadron which flew the airplane while the last number identified
the aircraft itself. I wanted to discover more about this airplane,
hoping in particular to find out why it had been selected for the cover
of a card representing Gander.

The
manufacturer’s serial number of the airplane was R5689. It was
one of 200 originally ordered as “Manchesters” (a similar 2-engine
airplane) from the AV Roe factories in Manchester England, but was
finally built as a 4-engine Lancaster, model B1. These were
delivered during the period February to July 1942 with Merlin 20
engines (same as on the famous Spitfire fighter). Here is a
colour sketch of VN-N in its normal livery:

Lancaster R5689 (VN-N) was sent to 50 Squadron of
the RAF on 22 June 1942. It took part in many key operations, bombing
places such as Saarbrucken, Dussldorf, Le Havre, Essen and
Wilhelmshaven. On its last run, it left Swinderby, England, at
19h15 on 18 September 1942 on a mine-laying operation. It crash landed
and was written off at Thurlby, Lincolnshire, when both port engines
conked out as the airplane was coming in to land. One of the seven
member British, Australian and Canadian crew who lost his life was Sgt
JR Gibbons of the RCAF, a fellow from the area of Brantford, Ont.

Here are two photos, from slightly different angles, one of which seems
hand-coloured, which appear to be during the same pre-take-off line up
at Swinderly:

It may be that VN-N was used for the cover
because of Sgt Gibbons. But that appears unlikely because he didn’t
seem to have any personal connection with Gander. The Lancaster itself
was not one of those built in Canada and sent overseas. In any case it
would unlikely that RCAF Gander would have selected its own card,
especially as there were no Lanc bombers operating from Gander. It is
thereforemost likely a general use RCAF model for the year.

However, for
some reason, this particular aircraft comes up often in research on
Lancasters, both in actual wartime photos, in sketches and in post war
paintings. In one online chat group, some thought that VN-N was the
most photographed Lancaster of WWII. I have read however that this
particular airplane may have been used to make "air recognition" photos
showing the front, side and bottom views to train air and ground crews
in the instant recognition of a Lancaster so as not to shoot at it by
mistake. These photos would therefore have been
distributed in large quantity. Given that wartime secrecy precludes
publishing the various aircraft beening used in different locations, it
would therefore be quite logical to use this particular Lanc for
generic purposes.

For those wish to learn more about the history of the Lanc and what it
was like to be on one during real operations, the video below is
excellent. It is however about 40 minutes long.